Zoe Laiyi Clarke

Toronto born violinist/violist LAIYI CLARKE is 17 years old and has been playing the violin since the age of four.

Laiyi has been a featured soloist with the York Chamber Ensemble and the Canadian Sinfonietta and the CS Youth Orchestra, most recently making her Carnegie Hall debut with them in April 2026. She can also soon be heard as a soloist on all streaming platforms performing a new work for solo viola and strings by her grandfather Tak Ng Lai.

Laiyi has been a member of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra for three years and is the current concertmaster of the Canadian Sinfonietta Youth Orchestra (CSYO), with whom she has toured extensively. In the summer of 2025, Laiyi played over 10 concerts as concerto soloist with the group in Italy and Austria.

Laiyi has participated and placed first in numerous competitions including the Unionville Music Competition, the Kiwanis Music Festival, the North York Music Festival, and the Ontario (OMFA) Provincials. In 2025, Laiyi obtained her ARCT (Diploma for Performance) in violin from the Royal Conservatory of Music with First Class Honours.

Laiyi is also an avid chamber musician and has performed and competed in competitions with the CSYO as well as TSYO chamber ensembles. Laiyi comes from a family of professional musicians and has been a member of her family string quartet, the Lai-Clarke String Quartet since she was very young. With them, she has performed and collaborated with a number of prominent Canadian musicians and premiered several string quartets composed for the group. She can be heard performing with them this month at the Stratford Summer Music Festival.

2026 was an amazing year for Laiyi as she was honoured to perform alongside and be mentored by acclaimed musicians Hibiki Kobayashi and Jean-Luc Plourde in multiple concerts in Toronto and Quebec City. She then joined them in Japan in the fall for more concerts.

In addition to master classes and private lessons with Toronto Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Jonathan Crow, Laiyi was a violin student of both her grandfather, Tak Ng Lai and mother Joyce Lai. Currently Laiyi is studying with JUNO award winning violinist, Conrad Chow.

In the summer of 2026, Laiyi attended the Shkolnikova Academy in France, a prestigious music festival for young musicians led by students of the late Russian violinist and pedagogue Nelli Shkolnikova.

When not playing the violin, Laiyi loves to be a part of the drama world. She has won awards as both a playwright and composer. In spring of 2026, Laiyi was honoured to be chosen for the Best Actor Award in the National Theatre School DramaFest Regional Competition – winning over 24 schools.

Laiyi plays on an instrument and bow generously loaned to her from M.Dubois of CANIMEX Group Inc., Quebec.